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Beyond Economics and Ecology: The Radical Thought of Ivan Illich

Posted By: arundhati
Beyond Economics and Ecology: The Radical Thought of Ivan Illich

Ivan Illich, Jerry Brown, "Beyond Economics and Ecology: The Radical Thought of Ivan Illich"
2013 | ISBN-10: 0714531588 | 128 pages | EPUB | 0,2 MB

Each of the four essays reprinted here was written by Ivan Illich for a specific occasion and together comprise only the smallest selection from a larger corpus by Illich of his radical thought questioning commodity and energy-intensive economies. The essays are presented thematically instead of chronologically to offer a better view of the sweep of Illich s argument. In the first two, War against Subsistence and Shadow Work, Illich reveals both the ruins on which the economy is built and the blindness of economics which cannot but fail to see it. The second two essays, Energy and Equity and The Social Construction of Energy, unearth the nineteenth century invention and subsequent consequences of energy thought of as the unseen cause of all work whether done by steam engines, humans, or trees. The science of ecology relies on this assumption and, as Illich explained, unwittingly fuels the addiction to energy. The close dance of energy consumption and economic growth is characteristic of not just industrially geared societies. After all, energy consumption steadily increases even in so-called post-industrial societies, fueling the fortunes of Google and Apple no less than Wal-Mart.